The Prospector: Chris Ferguson, 'Bahamian Beast, headed to Cincy

Chris Ferguson was standing in the University of Cincinnati football locker room Sunday; a place he had never imagined himself being.

He loved it … loved it so much, in fact, he committed to play for the Bearcats as a member of the 2014 recruiting class.

Last summer, he wasn’t a football player. Far from it. He played basketball and soccer, and that was his focus when his family moved to Orlando from the Bahamas.

Ferguson was thinking perhaps he could earn his way to a college scholarship on the basketball court. He thought he was good enough.

But at 6-foot-6, 275 pounds, you are not going to walk around the hallways at Lake Nona High without getting the attention of football coach Anthony Paradiso.

Once Paradiso saw him, he knew he had something special. Even said he could be a “beast,” back in September. The 'Bahamian Beast.' It has a ring to it.

“He showed up with his parents to enroll early at the end of school last year,” Paradiso said. “He was touring the school with our athletic director [Andy Chiles], and I saw him... and he said he played soccer and basketball in the Bahamas.

“I pulled him aside and said, ‘Hey, we have some big-time [football] recruits here and you could get some attention with your size. If you work hard and do well in the classroom you’ll have an opportunity to get a scholarship.’ He latched on to that and the rest is history.”

He wasn't exactly sure at first.

Even after he got out on the football field, there were times when he wondered what he was getting himself into, “Maybe once or twice I was like, ‘Why am I doing this?’” Ferguson said, but the big fella is happy he pushed through the hard times.

“When I came here, my focus was on basketball,” said Ferguson, who did not play hoops for Lake Nona after his football success. “Obviously I had never really thought about [football]. At first I was 50-50 because I had never done it before, but as I did it, they showed me the ropes, and I was pretty good at it.”

He attributes his success to Paradiso and Lake Nona defensive line coach Ernest Allen.

Of course, it wasn’t easy.

“I liked it because it made me push my body like I never did before, all of the conditioning and stuff,” Ferguson said. “They really pushed us and made us go hard every practice … But I fought through it and now it’s paying off.”

His meteoric rise into the starting lineup for one of the top football teams in Florida’s Class 7A was pretty incredible. Sure, he was raw and he made his mistakes, but with his kind of athleticism and size, chances could be taken.

“He’s a big athletic kid with natural ability, it’s just that he didn’t know the game of football and so that’s what took him a little time to get on the field and get comfortable,” Paradiso said. “In the latter half of the season he was pretty good for us and he’s got a lot of football ahead of him.”

Cincinnati is well aware, and that’s why the Bearcats are taking a chance on a project lineman. Ferguson could very well end up on the offensive line once he hits the college training table and weight program.

“They like his size, his speed and his versatility in regards to playing possibly defensive end, or defensive tackle, or even moving him to the offensive side of the ball on the line,” Paradiso said. “Originally that’s where we wanted to play him but he couldn’t grasp what we were doing fast enough, so we moved him to the defensive side.”

It’s not easy grasping the complex pass-blocking schemes of Air Paradiso, and Ferguson didn’t have much of a window within which to learn having first stepped on a football field in August. What he managed to learn, however, in just three months of football earned him a college scholarship, something he never thought he would be touting prior to his arrival at Lake Nona.

“It is a shock for me … it’s really all just a dream,” Ferguson said. “Back home I always just watched football on the TV, but I never thought I’d be here.

He’ll blow up in size after a semester at Cincy. His mom won’t recognize him. His 21-year-old sister said she’ll be scared.

“Coach Diso said, ‘They’re going to beef you up,’ …my sister said she is going to be like, ‘Who is this in our house? Get out,’ ” Ferguson said.